LG UJ7700 is mid-end of LG’s 2017 4K HDR TV lineup and also a successor of UH7700, a mid-end of LG’s 2016 4K HDR LED TV lineup. In the market, UJ7700 series is available on 4 screen sizes including 49 Inch (49UJ7700), 55 Inch (55UJ7700), 60 Inch (60UJ7700), and 65 Inch (65UJ7700). Meanwhile, UH7700 series is only available on 3 screen sizes including 55 Inch (55UH7700), 60 Inch (60UH7700), and 65 Inch (65UH7700). And of course, this comparison is as true to the screen sizes that available on both those are 55 Inch (55UJ7700 vs 55UH7700), 60 inch (60UJ7700 vs 60UH7700), and 65 Inch (60UJ7700 vs 60UH7700). So, what are their differences?

Short Review of LG UH7700 (55UH7700, 60UH7700, 65UH7700)

LG UH7700 is the lowest model of LG’s 2016 SUHD TV lineup. The excepting of 3D technology, it is similar to the higher series UH8500 but of course, sold cheaper. Focus on HDR technology, it is powered by Super Mastering Engine with HDR Super that already supports both HDR and Dolby Vision Format and the number of LG’s most advanced technologies. On its panel, LG UH7700 has IPS panel with Edge Lit Backlight and Local Dimming technology. Since it has IPS panel, this certainly makes it has wide side viewing angle coverage. Meanwhile, for improving contrast ratio and brightness range, there are Ultra Black Panel and Ultra Luminance behind it. Additionally, one of the great technologies behind it is the IPS 4K Quantum Display technology that based on quantum dot technology. This allows LG UH7700 is able to deliver wide color gamut that makes color of the picture produced looks very accurate. Combination between all of these technologies certainly makes its picture quality and HDR performance is great for its class.

In addition to the number of most advanced technologies behind great picture quality produced, LG UH7700 is also powered by the technologies that make it offers great performance in some features. Tru 4K Up-Scaler allows you to enjoy lower resolution videos with the quality close to 4K resolution. Meanwhile, for delivering smooth and clear picture quality when playing fast moving images, it is powered by Tru Motion 240 Technology based on 120 Hz native refresh rate panel. The other excellent performance offered by UH7700 is about their extremely low input lag that makes it is very comfortable for any kind of games. And to make you more comfort when enjoying home entertainment, it features WebOS as its smart TV platform where it is simple to use, very attractive, responsive, and there are a lot of attractive and useful apps provided.

Short Review of LG UJ7700 (49UJ7700, 55UJ7700, 60UJ7700, 65UJ7700)

As we have mentioned, LG UJ7700 is a mid-end of LG’s 2017 4K HDR TV lineup and also a successor of UH7700. But unlike the predecessor UH7700 where it is a part of LG Super UHD TV lineup, in this year, UJ7700 is no longer part of LG SUHD TV lineup due it doesn’t have quantum dot technology. Nevertheless, lack of quantum dot panel doesn’t mean its color performance is worse than UH7700 or it precisely offers a bit wider color gamut than the predecessor. Combination of RGBW sub pixels technology and True Color Accuracy makes it can cover wide color gamut coverage. Meanwhile, still focus on HDR, LG UJ7700 is powered by Active HDR technology that already support most of HDR format including HDR 10 by UHD Alliance, Dolby Vision by Dolby Laboratories, HLG By BBC and NHK, and Advanced HDR by Technicolor. Additionally, UJ7700 also comes with new technology called HDR effect that allows you to enjoy any video contents with the quality close to 4K HDR.

Like the predecessor, LG UJ7700 also comes with IPS panel technology that offers wide viewing angle coverage. On its panel, it also uses Edge Lit Backlight with local dimming technology for delivering strong native contrast ratio. For reaching bright peak luminance, it is also powered by Ultra Luminance technology. Meanwhile, for handling motion blur when displaying fast moving images, LG UJ7700 is powered by Tru Motion 120 technology based on native 60 Hz refresh rate panel. Additionally, it also has outstanding low input lag that makes it is also very comfortable for any kind of games even for fast paced games which require extremely fast reflexes. And as its smart TV platform, it comes with 2017 version of WebOS or WebOS 3.5 where there are some upgrades and updates that certainly makes it is better than last year version.

LG UJ7700 vs UH7700 Performance

Picture Quality

Overall, quality of picture produced by LG UH7700 and UJ7700 is similar, ordinary in a dark room and better in brighter room. Since both of them use IPS panel, they cannot produce deep black level and strong native contrast ratio. Their native contrast ratio is similar that is about 1100:1. This certainly is far weaker that offered by VA TVs which have contrast ratio more than 3000:1.The impact, their dark room performance is equally poor. When set in a dark room, black looks tend to grey that make dark scenes look washed-out. But even so, they are not the worst considering there are also other IPS TVs which have worse contrast ratio. Additionally, low contrast ratio offered by them is not also able to reveal well shadow details when they are displaying HDR videos. So, playing HDR videos in a dark room don’t give significant improvement in dark scenes over SDR contents. Nevertheless, once they set in a brighter room where there is ambient light that makes low contrast ratio is less noticeable, dark scenes looks better with black looks darker and details of picture in shadows looks clearer and more natural.

On the other hand, peak brightness of LG UJ7700 is not too bright when inputted by SDR contents, even more dim than UH7700. This makes the highlights of SDR contents displayed on the screen of UJ7700 looks not so bright, even when set in a dark room. Additionally, when set in a brighter room, the peak brightness of UJ7700 is not also quite bright to effectively fight the glare that makes bright scenes don’t appear so properly. Meanwhile, with brighter peak luminance when inputted by SDR contents, the highlights of images look brighter on the screen of LG UH7700. Additionally, peak brightness of LG UH7700 also more effectively fights the glare than UJ7700.

While when inputted by SDR videos, LG UH7700 has brighter peak luminance than UJ7700, otherwise, when inputted by HDR videos, peak brightness of LG UJ7700 is brighter than UH7700. This certainly makes the highlights of HDR contents looks brighter on the screen of UJ7700 that makes brighter screen looks better than UH7700. On the other hand, although it is not as bright as UJ7700, peak brightness of UH7700 is also quite bright to fight the direct glare when set in a bright room. Essentially, peak brightness of both is quite bright to makes the highlights of HDR videos looks great, particularly when set in a dark room or moderately bright room. Nevertheless, when set in an extremely bright room with a lot of sunlight coming through the windows, it is not still quite bright. Additionally, their peak brightness is not also bright enough to display the highlights at 1000 nits or brighter like what intended by HDR technology itself, whether it is HDR 10, Dolby Vision, HLG, or Advanced HDR.

Moving on color performance, although not as good as high end TVs that available in the market, overall, their color performance is good. Color of the picture displayed on their screen looks accurate, particularly on brighter color. Compare between them, lack of quantum dot technology doesn’t make the color performance of LG UJ7700 is worse than UH7700 that comes with Quantum Dot Panel. UJ7700 even already supports wide color gamut while UH7700 is not yet. This certainly makes the color of picture displayed on the screen of UJ7700 looks richer and more accurate than UH7700, particularly when displaying HDR contents that required wide color gamut. Meanwhile, when displaying SDR contents that only require Rec.709 color space, both of them did not encounter significant obstacles. Meanwhile, talking about their color gradient, both of them already support 10 bit depth of color and are able to process them greatly. The result, color gradient of the picture displayed on their screen looks very smooth and clear, particularly when displaying HDR videos. Some imperfections might still a bit noticeable, but they should not be a problem.

The other great performance that offered by them is about their 4K Up-scaling engine. No matter the resolution of the source, this allows you to enjoy them in 4K quality clearly and sharply. Even the low resolution contents like DVD movies still looks sharp and clear with a lot of details preserved well in 4K quality. Even not only that, with HDR Effect feature behind LG UJ7700, you can enjoy them with the quality close to 4K HDR. Meanwhile, LG UH7700 doesn’t yet have this feature.

The use of IPS panel might make their black level and native contrast ratio is weak, but in other hand, this makes LG UH7700 and UH7700 have wide viewing angle coverage. This means when the viewers watch TV from side viewing angle, the quality of the picture displayed on their screen will look more consistent than VA TVs. Both of them are very suitable to be used in a wide room with viewers who are watching TV from multiple viewing angles.

Motion Handling and 24p Playback

Both of LG UH7700 and UJ7700 equally do a good job when handling motion blur. They equally have fast pixel response time that makes both of them very comfortable when used for playing fast moving images. The result, the picture displayed looks very smooth and clear when used for watching sports program, fast movies, or other video contents with fast scenes. Following the fast moving objects, there is only a short trail where most of people don’t notice about that. Meanwhile, when playing 24p movies, both of them also offer similar performance. Both of them only do a great job when playing 24p contents like Blu-Ray movies where the picture produced looks very smooth with judder-free. Meanwhile, while playing 24p videos via 60i/60p signals like movies from streaming media or satellite TV, their performance is not so good where the judder is still noticeable. Nevertheless, since most of people don’t sensitive to judder, this should not be a serious problem for them. Additionally, since each of them has difference in native refresh rate panel, this certainly makes them offer difference performance when interpolating lower frame rate contents. LG UH7700 with native 120 Hz refresh rate panel supports both 30fps and 60 fps motion interpolation while LG UJ7700 with native 60 Hz refresh rate panel only supports 30 fps motion interpolation.

Inputs/outputs

As their major inputs, LG UJ7700 is equipped with 4 HDMI ports while UH7700 is equipped with 3 HDMI Ports. But even so, all of their HDMI ports already support HDCP 2.2 and other HDMI formats like Audio Return Channel, CEC, and others. While UJ7700 has more HDMI ports than UH7700, the number of USB ports of LG UH7700 is more than UJ7700. In this case, UH7700 has 3 USB ports while UJ7700 only has 2 HDMI ports. In addition to HDMI and USB ports both of them are equipped with the same inputs/outputs including 1 Composite In (AV In), 1 Component In, 1 RF In (Terrestrial), and 1 Digital Audio Out (Optical). Talking about their input lag, essentially, their input lag is low, but compare between them, UJ7700 has lower input lag than UH7700 at any source. The input lag of UH7700 under “Game Mode” is quite low at 1080p and 4K source, even in “HDR Game” mode. This certainly makes it is very comfortable when used for playing any kind of games, even for fast paced games. Meanwhile, the input lag of UJ7700 under “Game Mode and PC Mode” is really outstanding, even far lower than UH7700. With about 11 ms of input lag at any source, this certainly will please most of gamers.

Smart TV

Essentially, both of LG UH7700 and UJ7700 feature similar smart TV platform that is WebOS. Which distinguishes is about the version where UH7700 comes with 3.0 version or 2016 version while UJ7700 comes with 3.5 version or 2017 version. Overall, there are not many major changes on the newer version over old version. User interface is still attractive with strip bar at the bottom of the screen where there are a lot of most popular apps located, so to access each of them you just need to click the icon. Additionally, there are also a lot of low level options for controlling TV functions. Nevertheless, this does not reduce the ease in navigating. Meanwhile, performance of both is equally fast and responsive. Once an app is launched, the loading in time is very fast. Additionally, multitasking or selecting between apps also feels responsively. Talking about apps provided, there are tons of useful and interesting apps available. There are Video on Demands apps like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Videos, and more, Web Browser, Cloud Games, LG Apps Store, Screen Mirroring, and many more. But even so, they are not as many as which provided by Tizen Os or Google Android TV.

LG Magic Remote

As the controller, both of LG UH7700 and UH7700 are also equipped with similar remote control called LG Magic Remote. Unlike Sony Remote that has dazzling array of buttons, this remote have few buttons only including “Number Buttons” and some buttons which give fast access to basic options or quick menus. In addition to there is built-in microphone for voice navigation or voice search functionality, this remote also has a scroll wheel at the center of navigation pad that has double function for scrolling the menus and as select button. And with “point and click” functionality, this certainly makes you more comfort and easy when surfing on the internet, selecting apps, inputting the text, and others functionality.

Conclusion

The major changes on LG UHJU7000 over the predecessor UH7700 is about quantum dot technology where unlike LG UH7700 that comes with Quantum Dot, UJ7700 series is not supported by Quantum Dot Technology. Nevertheless, this didn’t makes the color performance of UJ7700 is worse than UH7700. The excepting of QD technology, there are not many major changes on UJ7700 over UH7700. Meanwhile, a bit improvement on LG UJ7700 over UH7700 is about HDR effect technology that improves brightness range of SDR contents to near HDR contents and also about HDR format supported where UJ7700 support more HDR format than UH7700. The other a bit improvement is about the input lag. Despite the input lag of UH7700 is already quite low, UJ7700 even offer lower input lag that makes it is included one of TVs with lowest input lag.

Meanwhile, about picture quality and performance of some features, overall, there are not many differences between them. Both of them equally use IPS panel that offers wide viewing angle. But in other hand, this makes their native contrast ration is weak. Additionally, both of them also equally offer good motion handling due their pixel response time is equally low. Additionally, when playing 24p movies, they also offer similar performance, great when playing Blu Ray Movies and not so good when playing 24 movies via 60p/60i signal.

So, which is a better choice between them? In my personal opinion, I think LG UJ7700 is a better choice than UH7700. In addition it is a newer model and offers some improvements, in the market it is not also sold far more expensive than LG UH7700. Additionally, since it was recently released, its price also still can drop as time goes by. But even so, if you want an older model where the price is as your main consideration, it is also not a bad choice. Now, the decision comes back to you according to your need preferences. But even so, before you decide to choose one of them, there are a lot of opinions from each of their real customers where you can make as your further consideration.

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